I've really neglected this blog since 2021, mainly because I was more focussed on the French stuff in the build-up to the RMweb member's day, but it's high time for a modest update to show some recent alterations.

 

 

 

 

In this shot, S&D allocated 9F 92006 waits for the go-ahead to depart Stourpayne Marshall with a Bournemouth to Bath stopping train.

 

What may be of interest is that until recently, this shot couldn't have been taken, as it would have been impossible to position the camera

on the road bridge at this end of the layout. However, that's all changed.

 

Perhaps a recap is in order:

 

The layout was initially conceived as three linked but scenically-independent modules: a spring module, a summer module, and a winter one, connected by short stretches

of off-stage track. 

 

Here for instance is an old shot of the spring module, taken in its earlier guise when it was just single-track (ignore the N stuff below it):

 

 

And here is the similar but smaller winter module, also single track:

 

 

Two major design reconsiderations have happened on the layout in the last half decade or so. The first was to go double track, not because I didn't like the single track nature of the old, but because double track actually makes more efficient use of the limited space available for the storage sidings. With single track, for any given number of roads, you need one more set of points at either end compared to double. Since these points inevitably eat into the available space, removing them allows the roads themselves to be elongated a bit, with the only downside being that each train is now confined to either the up or down direction. Whereas before I had one very long road and five increasingly short ones, such that roads five and six were barely large enough for a DMU, even the shortest roads are now suitable for 5 - 6 coach trains and the longest can accommodate 8 - 9 vehicles in addition to a loco. With the addition of cassettes, the length and variety of available trains is not too bad considering it's all squeezed into a spare room. In addition (following the subsequent changes) there are now three branch roads available, with expansion to four coming soon. 

 

The second reconsideration was to knock-through the scenic divide between the summer and winter modules and create a single, much larger scene. This was partly to allow a double junction off to a branch, but also in recognition that, after a number of years, the separate module concept wasn't really working for me any more. The winter module looked quite good but it was surprisingly difficult to photograph, and the available sight-lines turned out to be not very satisfactory, limiting camera angles and variety. I've never regretted the decision to create a much larger scene.

 

However, that still leaves the division between the spring module and the summer module. What, if anything, to do about that?

 

 

Here's a shot from around 2008 showing how the track spans the doorway by means of a plywood nod-under, so that one just has to duck slightly or not at all when entering the layout room.

 

Subsequent development saw curved skyboards wrapped around the summer module, with a hole for the tracks to emerge through, subsequently to be disguised by a road bridge.

 

 

And here we are with the finished article, much as it's been for the last 10 years or so:

 

 

The goods yard trackwork was reworked a few years ago to allow a trailing connection from the down line, but in all other respects not much has changed. To be honest I was happy enough with it to be somewhat cautious of going further, but gradually I decided that the layout looked too hemmed-in at this end of the module, and needed to breathe a bit more. Perhaps it was just a reaction to allowing the other end to spread out a bit more. In any case, over the last half year or so, I started making some vague steps in the direction of opening out this bit as well. However, I decided early on that it wouldn't involve linking all the way through to the spring module, as that would involve a lot of messy and destructive reworking that I didn't feel like tackling.

 

What has been done is much more modest, with little damage to existing scenery. Esssentially all I've done is "unwound" the old backscene. It no longer curls around behind the road bridge, but now continues in more or less a gradual curve out onto the nod-under.

 

 

Not that this wasn't without some mess. The backscene was carefully cut away from its original position, hacked about where necessary, and then forcibly re-straightened until it assumed the desired trajectory. One of my concerns had been that the EZ-Line telegraph wires would snap under the strain of being elongated as the backscene pulled away from its original angle (they were glued into it, hidden by bushes) but amazingly they held. 

 

 

The original nod-under had been designed for a single track plus one siding. It had already been widened to go double track, and now it gained two additional cheeks on either side, enabling a continuation of the scenery beyond the road bridge.

 

As can be scene, a new piece of backscene, as yet unpainted, has been grafted onto the end of the old section. One consideration at this point was whether or not to continue the backscene right around the nod-under until it meets the end of the spring module. After clamping in a test piece, I decided it made the railway room feel too closed-in, so I've opted instead for the backscene to have a gap in it, arranged at about the spot that normal views down the length of the summer module still look OK. I cut a curve into the top edge of the backscene to make it look like a design choice, rather than me just not finishing it off properly!

 

The benefit of this is two-fold, or even three-fold! The room doesn't feel closed-in, I can still tell the time by glancing at the railway clock on the wall, which would have been hidden by a continuous backscene, and finally, not having a backscene there opens up vistas like this one:

 

 

 

OK, it'll look better when scenicked and ballasted, but it should give the rough idea. It's an entirely new angle on the layout which was previously frustratingly hidden, but where trains are seen from an enjoyably different angle as they take the curve. In essence, it's just a few more feet of layout "reclaimed" for scenery and photography, but in a small-ish room that's not too bad an outcome after more than a decade of development.

 

Cheers and thanks for reading.